WATCH: Vegas Strip Club Recruits New High School Graduates (VIDEO)

Admittedly, my initial reaction to this video was one of disgust: “How disgusting of this sleazy, shady, strip-club to be recruiting high school girls to work for them.” But after a moment’s worth of reflection (aided by my colleague, Shannon Argueta), my disgust with the strip-club turned into disgust with our nation. The cost of higher-education in the United States is so exorbitant, you either must come from a family of decent means or be willing to be saddled with crippling debt.

The only other option is to juggle your studies with a part-time job. However, we no longer live in an America for which you can pay your way through college by working at the local hardware store. And for many young women, the only feasible way to pay their own way through school is stripping–or as my colleague put it, “America: the country where you have to get naked to pay for college.”

“Now Auditioning Class of 2015” lights up the marquee of this adult entertainment establishment. In the interview with Fox 5 Vegas, the manager stated that they have gotten both positive and negative feedback for the advertisement. It’s is safe to conclude that some of the negative feedback is coming from conservative, religious types that look down on any sexual behavior that does not conform to their own desires and proclivities.

This condemnation surely extends to the young women who would work their way through school stripping. The saddest irony of this condemnation is that these are the same conservatives who oppose any increase in wages that could actually help young women avoid dancing their way through college.

With all of this in mind, I can’t be too disgusted with this video. As long as wages remain ridiculously low and the cost of an education remains ridiculously high, the proper target for my disgust is the economic policies which got us to this point.